How to Tell if You're Ready to Start Collecting Social Security

Getting old isn't always pleasant. Various body parts, like your knees, may start failing you, and your hearing and memory may not be what they used to be. But there are plenty of things to look forward to as you age, such as grandchildren, senior citizen discounts, Medicare, and Social Security.

Social Security is a particularly wonderful thing, providing about 31% of income for those aged 65 or older. Here's a look at when you can consider yourself ready to start collecting it.

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1. You know you've qualified to receive Social Security benefits

First off, you need to qualify for those benefits. To be eligible, you need to earn a total of 40 credits. You can earn up to four per year, so you'll need to work and earn money for at least 10 years. The value of each credit is adjusted annually, and for 2025, it's $1,810 -- which amounts to just $7,240 over the course of a year.

While 10 years is the minimum you'll need to work, you should actually aim for 35, because your benefit is based on your earnings in the 35 years in which you earned the most. Work for fewer years and some zeroes will get factored into the calculation. (One of the ways to increase your Social Security benefits is to work more than 35 years if you're earning more, on average, than you've earned before. Each higher-earning year will kick the lowest-earning year out of the calculations.)

Finally, you'll need to be at least 62 years old. Social Security retirement benefits can be collected as early as age 62.

2. You know how much you can expect to receive from Social Security

It's also vital to know much income you can expect to collect from Social Security. Know that as of April, the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was $2,000. That's just the average, though. Depending on how much you've earned in your working life, you'll likely collect more or less than that amount.

You can get a good estimate of how much you can expect from Social Security by setting up a my Social Security account at the Social Security Administration (SSA) website. Then you'll be able to click in any time to see the latest estimates of your future benefits based on the SSA's records of your earnings.

If you don't like your estimated future benefits, remember that there are ways to increase your Social Security benefits. For example, if you're still working, try to earn more if you can, even if that means taking on a side hustle for a while.

3. You have an overall retirement plan, and Social Security is a part of it

Be sure to be reading up on and planning for your retirement. That means estimating how much you'll need in retirement and figuring out how you'll amass it. As you plan, be sure to factor in Social Security and see how much more income you'll need beyond that. Don't forget healthcare costs, too, as they can be quite substantial in retirement.

Having a plan can help you see when you can actually afford to retire -- when you have saved enough. Retiring with $1 million is sufficient for many people and woefully insufficient for others -- especially if retirement is still a bunch of years away.

Once you crunch your numbers, you might find that you're behind where you should be. If so, know that there are still some strategies to consider -- including delaying your retirement a bit.

4. You have picked the best time for you to start collecting your benefits

You aren't ready to start collecting Social Security until you've thought through the issue of when to claim your benefits -- because the best age at which to collect is different for different people.

Each retiree has a full retirement age at which they can start collecting the full benefits to which they're entitled based on their earnings -- and that age is 66 or 67 (it's 67 for those born in 1960 or later.) But you can start as early as age 62 and can delay to age 70. Starting early gets you smaller checks, but many more of them, and delaying will make your benefits bigger. For most folks, waiting until age 70 will deliver the most total benefits.

The table below shows how much of your full benefits you'll receive depending on when you claim them:

Data source: Social Security Administration.

Another consideration is that Social Security's future is uncertain. If nothing is done to strengthen Social Security, its trustees estimate that beginning in 2035, beneficiaries will receive only 83% of what they're due. Yikes. (There are multiple ways to fix this problem, though.)

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is making changes to Social Security that could harm the program. So keep up with developments regarding Social Security, to avoid being blindsided.

5. You've coordinated a Social Security strategy with your spouse, if you're married

Finally, if you're married, be sure to discuss with your spouse when each of you might start collecting your benefits. One good strategy is to have the higher earner delay until age 70, in order to maximize their benefit. The lower earner might start collecting early, late, or somewhere in between -- as needed. This way, when one spouse dies, the survivor will be able to collect whichever benefit is larger for the rest of their life.

Review these five considerations before making any Social Security decisions.

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